VAN DALE JUNKYARD

EPA ID# OHD980794606
Last Updated: August, 2014

Site Description

The Van Dale Junkyard (Van Dale) Superfund site is located in Washington County, Ohio. The site occupies a 31-acre parcel of land, of which ten acres was used for a licensed junkyard since the early 1960s (and may have been operating since the 1940s). The Van Dale site received a variety of materials for disposal or salvage, including general wastes such as scrap metal, appliances, furniture, automobiles, tires, and batteries. Records also indicate that several thousand drums of industrial waste were disosed of at the site in the late 1970s. The site received wastes until 1980.

Portions of Fearing and Marietta townships, and the entire city of Marietta are within a three-mile radius of the Van Dale site. Approximately 10,000 people live within two miles of the site.

Site Responsibility

The Van Dale site is being addressed through state and federal oversight of potentially responsible party (PRP) actions.

Threats and Contaminants

Sampling results indicated widespread organic and inorganic contamination in site soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediments. Contaminants of concern include heavy metals such as antimony, arsenic, barium, cadmium, nickel, and vanadium and organic chemicals such as vinyl chloride, bis(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate, 1,1-dicloroethene, and tetrachloroethene (PCE).

The greatest potential risk to human health was identified as ingestion of contaminated groundwater.

Cleanup Progress

The Van Dale site potentially responsible parties (PRPs) began a Remedial Investigation (RI) at the site in 1988. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) assumed responsibility for completion of the RI in 1990 and issued the final RI Report in 1992.

In March 1994, U.S. EPA issued its Record of Decision (ROD), documenting the site cleanup plan. The selected remedy in the ROD included collection and consolidation of contaminated soils; segregation of solid wastes from soils; off-site disposal of materials (such as drummed wastes); consolidation of hazardous soils and wastes to an area on-site with construction of a hazardous waste cap over the soils and wastes; institutional controls including deed restrictions and fencing; and a long-term operation and maintence program including cap inspection and maintenance, and groundwater, surface water, and sediments monitoring.

U.S. EPA issued a Unilateral Administrative Order (UAO) to the major PRPs in August 1994 for Remedial Design and Remedial Action (RD/RA). EPA issued a second UAO for RD/RA to additional PRPs in October 1995. In 1996, the PRPs completed the off-site treatment and disposal action described in the ROD. This action included disposal of over 1,200 tons of hazardous soil and drummed waste, over 650 tons of non-hazardous soil and drummed waste, and treatment of hazardous and non-hazardous liquid waste and water. U.S. EPA approved the PRPs' RD report in January 1997.

In April 1997, the PRPs began construction of the remainder of the selected remedy. Due to slope instability in and around the waste cap area, U.S. EPA delayed construction activities. The PRPs then conducted physical and environmental sampling and analysis. U.S. EPA approved the modified Final Design in February 1999 after close consultation with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The main additional design feature of the modified design is the construction of an earthen buttress beneath the waste cap to stablize the capped area.

The PRPs restarted construction in April 1999 and completed construction in July 2000. The PRPs are responsible for maintenance and monitoring to ensure that groundwater, surface water, and sediment clean-up standards are attained. The PRPs performed the first groundwater, surface water, and sediment sampling event in June 2001. They have twice modified the groundwater monitoring well network at the site, so that U.S. EPA will obtain more meaningful sampling results.

The first two Five-Year Reviews were completed in 2004 and 2009. U.S. EPA issued the third Five-Year Review Report for the site in January 2014. This report documents that many of the remedy components at the site, including the groundwater remedy, are functioning as intended. It is not clear, however, if residual soil concentrations in the uncapped area of the site are acceptable for current residential use of the property or if vapor intrusion poses a complete exposure pathway at the site. U.S. EPA is working with the PRPs to conduct a supplemental risk assessment to evaluate these risks and to determine if additional soil or vapor response actions or restrictions are necessary. U.S. EPA is also evaluating whether the current institutional controls at the site are adequate or if an environmental covenant or other institutional controls are needed. U.S. EPA will also work with the PRPs to update the long-term stewardship procedures at the site.

U.S. EPA expects it will take approximately two years to complete these actions. Once these actions are complete, U.S. EPA will make a protectivness determination for the site in a Five-Year Review Addendum. U.S. EPA expects to issue the Five-Year Review Addendum by March 2016. The fourth five year review for the site will occur in 2019.